During Southwest’s investor day, some got a sneak peek at the new Southwest experience. Thanks to them, we now know what to expect as Southwest makes its “premium” push. Overall, things look pretty good, but we also got some nasty surprises, too.
This post is going to largely rehash what was already covered by others with my thoughts added in. Specifically, I’m going off of the report made by CrankyFlier. If you don’t already follow them, I encourage you to. Cranky is one of the best travel sites around, and always has been – at least, in my opinion. At any rate, let’s get into the new Southwest experience, as there is quite of bit of info to unpack.
The New Southwest Experience
Of course, the aspect of the new Southwest experience every one wants to know about is the seating. We all know that both assigned and premium seating are coming, but it always remained a question as to how the airline was going to accomplish this. After all, how do you give passengers an extra-space product while preserving pitch in the rest of the aircraft? Well, apparently, the answer is that standard seating passengers are losing a little space. Mercifully, Southwest will still offer more legroom than most, dropping pitch to 31″ (from 31″ to 32″) whereas the industry standard is 30″.
For seated in premium seats, the new Southwest experience will offer 34″ of pitch, which is an inch less than one Alaska Air’s premium class offers. Moreover, like Hawaiian, Southwest will visually differentiate their extra space seating seats with the addition of a light blue accent (whereas Hawaiian embroiders the product name onto the seat).
While the supplier of the new seats differs from the ones currently being installed on new aircraft, all seats will continue to come fitted with both USB-A and -C outlets, along with device holders.
It’s worth noting, however, that the above details aren’t going to be the same across Southwest’s entire fleet. Specifics will exists between different aircraft types, at least for the time being.
Boeing 737 MAX8 & 800
Since aircraft type will impact the new Southwest experience you receive, let’s break things down. Since the Boeing 737 MAX8s and 800s are configured in a virtually identical way, and are both the backbone of Southwest’s fleet, let’s go over these two first. Today, these jets seat 175 passengers, and that figure isn’t changing as the new configuration is retrofitted to these birds.
All of the above holds true for the MAX8 and 800 in that there will be power at every seat, standard seats shrink 1″ to 31″ of pitch, and premium seats will receive 34″ of pitch. However, the way these seats are distributed is interesting. 30 premium seats will be installed in the first five rows, followed by 42 preferred seats, a mix of eight premium seats and eight preferred seats (exit rows), another set of 30 premium seats, and 54 standard seats.
What the hell are preferred seats, you ask? The same as they are on every other airline nowadays – standard seats that are closer to the front of the plane and which you’ll have to pay extra for. Boo!
At any rate, this means that each of these jets will have 104 standard/preferred seats and 68 premium seats. That quite a few premium seats!
Boeing 737-700
Next up is the Boeing 737-700, which will have the convoluted version of the new Southwest experience. Since these aircraft are supposed to be retired from the fleet as Southwest begins taking deliver of Boeing 737 MAX7s (whenever that will be), they’re getting the least LUV. New seats aren’t being installed on these birds. Instead, Southwest plans on swapping out the seat covers with the new versions. What this means as that you’ll likely have a plusher seat, but there won’t be any in-seat power.
Also, rather than reconfigure the entire plane, Southwest will be yanking a whole row out of these planes, dropping total capacity from 143 to 137. Standard seats will still decrease in legroom by 1″ to 31″, though premium seats on this aircraft type will get 36″ of pitch, which is about where Hawaiian Air is for its Airbus A330s and Boeing 787s.
Fare Classes
With the new Southwest experience, it’s important for us to discuss how the fare classes will work. After all, this was another hot topic item when the new changes were initially announced. Unfortunately, we don’t know the complete details yet, but some information is better than none.
Wanna Get Away
While Southwest’s management stated that Basic Economy has no place in the new Southwest experience, the new Wanna Get Away fare certainly sounds like a different iteration of the maligned fare class. Why? Well, even though Southwest is adopting assigned seating, Wanna Get Away passengers don’t get to pick a seat. If you do want to select a seat, you can always buy up to a preferred or premium seat. Otherwise, your assignment is luck of the draw (though it could include a premium or preferred seat, depending on loads).
Wanna Get Away Plus
This appears to be the new base tier, as this is the one that will include a seat selection. Of course, these passengers can also buy up to a preferred or premium seat.
Anytime & Business Select
Southwest doesn’t yet know how to handle these to fare classes with the new Southwest experience. However, if I had to wager a bet, I’d think that Anytime passengers would be able to pick preferred seats, while Business Select passengers would get access to premium seats. A least, that’s what I think would make sense.
Elite Status
At this point in time, Southwest has said that A-List Preferred passengers will be able to select premium seats at the time of booking and standard A-List passengers can select them at the time of check-in. While there are no specifics mentioned, it’s safe to assume that these passengers could also assign themselves preferred and standard seats, likely regardless of fare class.
When
Though there are many questions that we still need answers to, I’m sure the thing on everyone’s mind is when will this change occur? Well, the major hangups right now are certification and software. Like with any other seating configuration, the FAA must certify the new Southwest experience. That effort is currently ongoing and is expected to finish in “early 2025.”
Once Southwest obtains certification, they expect to retrofit between 50 and 100 planes PER MONTH. Southwest currently has just over 800 jets in its fleet and expects to complete this work by the end of 2025.
Of course, as previously reported, the new fare structure and seat assignments won’t be ready until mid-2025 and will be valid on flights beginning in early 2026. That means between the time Southwest begins retrofits and when the new policy comes into force, passengers may luck out and get to sit in the new premium seats free of charge. Naturally, you’ll need to be one of the first people to board the aircraft to snag one of these seats, but still.
The New Southwest Experience, Final Thoughts
As a somewhat newly minted Southwest fan – I first flew them in 2019 – the new Southwest experience is of great interest to me. I don’t mind the free-for-all boarding style, but the so called “miracle flights” are getting old. That said, usually get Early Bird or Upgraded Boarding, as Early Bird usually doesn’t cost much on intra-Hawai’i flights, and I get four Upgraded Boarding per year as a benefit of my Southwest Priority card. So, naturally, I’m concerned with how these changes will impact my travel habits. Unfortunately, we don’t have answers for these concerns just yet.
That said, depending on what the Huaka’i benefits really are, and how pricing evolves with the new Southwest experience, if overall pricing and benefits are close enough, I could defect back to Hawaiian Airlines. But, again, with such incomplete information currently at our disposal, I’ll be taking a wait and see approach for now.